Christmas Usurpation - Scythiak WIP and other holiday cheer

Ho ho ho and all that! We're having the first White Christmas here since 1966 (though I wasn't around for that one), which is nice for sonofsonsoftaurus. Tomorrow we'll get out and play in it; should have a few inches.

Un Ho Ho Holy Trinity

Here's a couple of the WIP Psyker Battle Squad/Sorcerer Cabal. I think the color scheme at this stage may have been influenced by the season.

And this is the lightbox I mentioned getting last weekend from the inlaws.  As fate would have it, shortly after taking this pic I managed to bust the bulb on one of the lights.  This led to a comedy of errors for a while as I misunderstood the directions for taking out the bulb and spent a good while taking the light apart and trying to get at it from a different way, before realizing I should just press on the lens and turn that - pop, out comes the light.  D'oh!  I'm mechanically inclined...but the incline isn't very steep.




Next up is the other big hobby toy I got for the holidays - an airbrush and compressor!  Nothing too fancy at the moment, but when it warms up it should come in pretty handy with vehicles and basecoats, and as I learn more tricks and better control some fine work.



The compressor seems really nice - fairly quiet, and shuts off on its own if you aren't spraying/reducing the pressure.  I expect that I'll be using it outside most of the time so noise wouldn't generally be too big of a deal, but it's still a neat feature.

Back to the psykers, here's the full WIP squad:

And a closer shot of the further-along Overseer, Mors Vaul.  He's got his warpfire torch that can help detect excess warp energy buildup indicating an imminent Perils of the Warp attack, a copy of The Big Book of Ruin - 1001 Signs of Impending Doom, and his badge of office, a sigil of Tzeentch hanging from his belt.  The overseers for these less-developed sorcerers are not psykers themselves.  Rather, they are the product of a process similar to what the marines of the Exorcists chapter undergo - temporary possession by minor warp entities.  This experience makes them more resistant to further such encroachment, enabling them to better react to warp-related trouble in their charges.




 Another sorcerer, this time a Primaris Psyker equivalent - powerful and stable enough not to need or accept an overseer.  Sometimes the sorcerers start out well enough to never need a cabal, sometimes they develop enough to leave and act solo, and other times one gains their new level of power by absorbing the essences of the rest of the cabal and quenching his fresh-forged force weapon in their blood. I suspect this charming fellow took the latter route.

I'm not sure about the bone-colored armor on this one - it makes his headgear look even more like a big sea shell. 

Here's Astrakenor and his command squad.  The pic doesn't show his grey armor too well, but I'm not really happy with it anyways.  I may end up going back over him and making his armor black instead.

Vet squad.  Again, pic doesn't pic up the colors too well.  Currently modeled with lasguns, but will probably normally run with shotguns.  I didn't feel like converting them up yet, but may do so before they're finished.  Probably something simple like chopping off part of the barrel or adding a small gargoyle head or something.

And last but not least, the WIP Cultist platoon, led by Von Drakin.

I imagine that I'll keep on working on the cultists and psykers for now instead of the Rough Riders as originally planned.  Till next time!